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| Capital | Ceuta | ||||
| Official languages | Spanish | ||||
| Area – Total – % of Spain |
Ranked 28 km² |
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| Population – Total (2006) – % of Spain – Density |
Ranked 76,861 2,709.32/km² |
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| Demonym – English – Spanish |
Ceutan Ceutí |
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Statute of Autonomy
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March 14, 1995 | ||||
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– Congress seats – Senate seats |
2 |
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| President | Juan Jesús Vivas Lara (PP) | ||||
| ISO 3166-2 | ES-CE | ||||
| Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta | |||||
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain located on the Mediterranean, on the North African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates it from the Spanish mainland. The area of Ceuta is approximately 28 km².
Ceuta is dominated by a hill called Monte Hacho, on which there is a fort occupied by the Spanish Army. Monte Hacho is one of the possible locations for the southern Pillars of Hercules of Greek Legend, the other possibility being Jebel Musa.
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History
Ceuta's strategic location has made it the crucial waypoint of many cultures' trade and military ventures — beginning with the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC, who called the city Abyla. It was not until the Romans took control in about A.D. 42 that the port city (then named Septem) assumed an almost exclusive military purpose. Approximately 400 years later, the Vandals ousted the Romans from control, and later it fell to the Visigoths of Hispania and the Byzantines.
In 710, as Muslim armies approached the city, its Byzantine governor Julian (also described as "king of the Ghomara") changed sides and urged them to invade the Iberian Peninsula. Under the leadership of Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, Ceuta was used as a prime staging ground for an assault on Visigothic Hispania soon after.
After Julian's death the Arabs took direct control of the city; this was resented by the surrounding indigenous Berber tribes, who destroyed it in a Kharijite rebellion led by Maysara al-Haqir in 740. It lay in waste until refounded in the 9th century by Majakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived dynasty of the Banu Isam. Under his great-grandson they briefly paid allegiance to the Idrisids; the dynasty finally ended when he abdicated in favour of the Umayyad Caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III in 931, so the city returned to the Hispanic Andalusian rule like Melilla in 927 and Tanger in 951. Chaos ensued with the fall of the Umayyad caliphate in 1031, but eventually Ceuta, together with the rest of Muslim Spain were taken over by the Almoravids in 1084. The Almoravids were succeeded by the Almohads who conquered Ceuta in 1147 ruling it, apart from Ibn Hud's rebellion of 1232, until the Hafsids of Tunisia took it in 1242. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and the city expelled them in 1249; after this, it went through a period of political instability during which the city was disputed between the Kingdom of Fez and the Kingdom of Granada.
In 1387, Ceuta was conquered for the last time by the Kingdom of Fez, with Aragonese help.
In 1415, Ceuta was occupied by the Portuguese during the reign of John I of Portugal.
After Portugal lost its independence to Spain in 1580, the majority of the population of Ceuta became of Spanish origin. This went to the extent of Ceuta being the only city of the Portuguese Empire that sided with Spain when Portugal regained its independence in 1640 and war broke out between the two countries.
The formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain was recognized by the Treaty of Lisbon by which, on January 1, 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal formally ceded Ceuta to Carlos II of Spain. However, the originally Portuguese flag and coat of arms of Ceuta remained unchanged and modern day Ceuta flag features the configuration of the Portuguese shield. The flag's background is also the same as that of the flag of Lisbon.
When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta and the other plazas de soberanía remained under Spanish rule as they were considered integral parts of the Spanish state.
Culturally, modern Ceuta is considered part of the Spanish region of Andalusia. Indeed, it was until recently attached to the province of Cádiz - the Spanish coast being only 20 km away. It is a very cosmopolitan city, with a large ethnic Berber Muslim minority as well as a Sephardic Jewish minority.
On November 5, 2007, King Juan Carlos I visited the city, sparking great enthusiasm from the local population and protests from the Moroccan government [1]. It was the first time a Spanish head of state had visited Ceuta in 80 years.
Administration
Ceuta is known officially in Spanish as Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (lit., Autonomous City of Ceuta), with a rank between a standard Spanish city and an autonomous community. Before the Statute of Autonomy, Ceuta was part of the Cádiz province .
Ceuta is part of the territory of the European Union. The city was a free port before Spain joined the European Union in 1986. Now it has a low-tax system within the European Monetary System. As of 2006, its population was 75,861.
Ceuta does not have an airport. There is, however, a regular helicopter service linking it to Málaga Airport. Access to and from Ceuta is by ferry or land.
Political status
Since 1995 Ceuta is, along with Melilla, one of the two autonomous cities in Spain[2].
The government of Morocco has repeatedly called for Spain to transfer the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla, along with uninhabited islets such as Isla Perejil, drawing comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. In both cases, the national governments and local populations of the disputed territories reject these claims by a large majority. The Spanish position states that both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of the Spanish state since the 15th century, whereas Gibraltar, being a British Overseas Territory, is not nor ever has been part of the United Kingdom.[3]
Ecclesiastical history
By the Concordat of 1851 the diocese of Ceuta, a suffragan of the Andalusian archbishopric of Seville, was suppressed and incorporated in the diocese of Cádiz, whose bishop usually was the Apostolic Administrator of Ceuta. The agreement, however, was not implemented until 1879.
Economy
The official currency of Ceuta is the euro. It is part of a special low tax zone in Spain.[4]
Ceuta is one of two Spanish port cities on the northern shore of Africa, along with Melilla. They are historically military strongholds, free ports, oil ports, and also fishing and smuggling centers.[5] Today the economy of the city depends heavily on its port (now in expansion) and its industrial and retail centres.[6]
Along with Melilla, Ceuta is the main link to and from the plazas de soberanía, especially the Islas Chafarinas. Over 2.5 million passengers used this port annually during the 1980scitation needed en route to Morocco or to mainland Spain. As of the mid-1990s, Spain adopted a policy of downplaying use of the port, to deemphasize the economic significance of the citycitation needed. Ceuta is a major Mediterranean port. As recently as the 1960s it was the primary port for all of Spaincitation needed.
Sister cities
See also
References
- ^ Ceuta y Melilla son España, dice Juan Carlos I; Sebta y Melilia son nuestras, responde Mohamed VI
- ^ Ley Orgánica 1/1995, de 13 de marzo, Estatuto de Autonomía de Ceuta
- ^ A rocky relationship | World news | guardian.co.uk
- ^ Economic Data of Ceuta, de ceutna digital
- ^ pp. 6-7, IBRU, Boundary and Territory Briefing. Ceuta and the Spanish Sovereign Territories: Spanish and Moroccan
- ^ Economic Data of Ceunta, de ceutna digital
External links
- (Spanish) Information on the history of Ceuta
- (Spanish) Official Ceuta government website
- Time Magazine: Al-Qaeda Eyes Spain's 'Lost City'
- Spain's North African enclaves
- Documentary about illegal immigrants trying to reach Ceuta from Morocco
- Ceuta is at coordinates Coordinates:
- Satellite image of Ceuta
- Images of Ceuta
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 1 October 2008, at 07:22.
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